


Beautiful Girl

by Your1upGirl



Series: Aerith Week 2021 [2]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Aerith Week 2021, Child Aerith, Day Two: A Slum Girl Under the Steel Sky, Fluff with some angst, I think Elmyra is a great mom who needs to be appreciated, Mother Daughter story, but i wanted to write Aerith as a child with Elmyra, enjoy :), i loved writing this, this is very soft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-09
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 17:27:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29299650
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Your1upGirl/pseuds/Your1upGirl
Summary: A tender moment between mother and daughter as Elmyra cheers up a young Aerith when she comes home one day in tears. Aerith Week 2021, Day two: A slum girl under the steel sky.
Series: Aerith Week 2021 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149536
Kudos: 5





	Beautiful Girl

When Aerith came home and didn’t tell Elmyra about her day, that was how she knew something was wrong. “Aerith, sweetie how was your day?” Elmyra didn’t get a response. Instead the answer was the door upstairs shutting. Elmyra stopped what she was doing in the kitchen to go check. As she got closer to the door, Elmyra could hear faint sobs coming from within the room.

“Aerith, what happened? I thought you said you were playing with the other children today.” 

“I was playing with them. But I don’t want to anymore.” Elmyra sighed as Aerith cried a bit louder. It has taken the young girl a while to make friends here. When she was with any adult, she could have a full blown conversation. People sometimes called her a mini adult with how she answered their questions. But when it came to people her age, Aerith was a swing and a miss. They called her a “fallen plate” because they knew that she was from above. Anyone who was from the plate and found themselves in the slum was called that because it meant you must have messed up in life if you now live here. She didn't want to imagine what they would have said if they knew she escaped from a lab. Aerith did her best to fit in but Elmyra knew that a girl like her was made to stand out. Still, it must be hard to lose your mother and be rejected by others.

“Sweetheart, I’m coming in.”

“Okay.” When Elmyra stepped into the room, Aerith was sitting on her bed, red-eyed and face stained with tears. She clutched an armful of flowers close to her chest. The dirt from the roots made a small pile on her dress. 

Elmyra sat on the bed with her brushing brunette bangs out of her face, “Aerith, what happened.” 

She sniffed. Her free arm wiped her cheeks and calmed down just enough to explain, “We were just playing hide-and-seek outside of the sector. I was hiding but they couldn’t find me. I called out ‘come find me’ but they never did. I cried and walked to see where they went. That’s when I found these.” She held out the flowers to Elmyra. They looked in poor shape, something a little girl holding them like a stuffed toy couldn’t do. “I started talking to the flowers and they would talk back.”

“The flowers were talking to you?”

“Yes.” Big green eyes looked up, Elmyra didn’t want to upset her daughter any further so she just agreed. “Okay, then what happened?”

“The other kids found me and they made fun of me. They kept telling me that flowers can’t talk. When I said they could you just have to listen, they came closer. I could hear them but the other kids still didn’t believe me. They called me weird. One girl called the flowers stupid. So I told her that maybe they just don’t want to talk to rude people like you and she pushed me. She said ‘This is what I think about your stupid flowers,’ they all started to step on them.” Her crying got much more fierce at this point. 

“Aerith, don’t cry.” Elmyra hugged her as she too felt tears come to her eyes. The girl cried into her arms, flowers still in her grasp. “So, why did you bring the flowers with you.” 

“After they left, I dug them up. I felt that it was my fault that they got hurt so I wanted to take them with me.”

“I see, that was a very kind of you to do. And, I’m sure the flowers appreciate it very much.” 

“They didn’t talk the whole way home…”

“Well, that-that’s just because they got hurt. Let’s see here, you got the roots for each of them. I have a lot of land here, maybe if we plant them back in the ground and take good care of them, they’ll be talking to you in no time.”

Aerith nodded yes. Elmyra left for just a moment and returned with a brown basket. She put the flowers in, took Aerith’s hand and together, they went outside. She let Aerith choose where to plant them. Aerith’s puffy eyes eventually faded, bright green eyes were replaced in their stead. Elmyra wasn’t sure about the flowers talking. She had a hard time believing it herself, but as Aerith whispered to the flowers in her arms, the woman didn’t care if they talked or not. Just as long as her daughter was happy. First were the lilacs, then the calla lilies, and the green gladiolus. Finally it was the last flower, it was one Elmyra had never seen before.

“Aerith, where did you get this one?”

“I found it in the church on my way home.”

“The church?” Really? Nothing has grown there since she came to this sector.

“Mhm. The kids hadn’t found it yet so I dug it up so it would be safe. It was the only one there.” Using the gardening tools they placed it in the ground and gave it some water. Elmyra sat on the ground with Aerith in her lap. They looked at the flora sway in the breeze, the water from the brook creating a perfect sound to the scenic moment.

“Do you think I’m weird?”

“No, you’re just different from other people, but that’s not bad. If anything it’s good to be different. Can you imagine if everyone in the world was the same? What fun would that be?” She held Aerith and kissed the top of her head. “You are a beautiful girl and that beauty will only get stronger as you get older. There is nothing wrong with you. So, what if you talk to flowers. Nothing wrong with that. Did you know that when I was your age, I had an imaginary friend?”

“Really?”

“Yup, I would talk to them all the time. But no one else could see them. So, the other kids made fun of me. Does that make me weird?”

“No.”

“So, you shouldn’t think that you are either. It doesn’t matter what other people say about you Aerith. You will see that, unfortunately, there are rude people in this world. The only thing we can do is ignore them and know our own self-worth. You have to be strong enough to know that, no matter what anyone says, you still think of yourself with the highest respect. And that doesn’t mean you should think that you’re better than anyone, but it does mean that you are better than the mean things that people say about you. People can say anything they want about you but you know, deep down who you are. Do you understand, Aerith?”

“Yes, I do.” Aerith leaned into the hug and did her best to hold one of Elmyra’s arms. “Thank you, I love you Mom.”

Elmyra silently gasped, that was the first time Aerith ever called her “Mom”. She held back tears, tightened the hug between them, and thanked whatever God was out there for bringing this little girl into her life. “I love you too, Aerith.”

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of what Elmyra says are things that my mom has told me in the past and even sometimes today. I just think that little pieces of wisdom from mothers are meant to be shared. So, I hope that what Elmyra and my mom have said makes you feel better about yourself as well. I hope you guys like it. c:


End file.
